"Taste What Buffalo's All About"

The Best Thing I Ever Ate

Geoffrey Zakarian talks about Charlie the Butcher's Roast Beef. He is the Chef/Owner of The Lambs Club in New York City and a TV Judge on Chopped.

Do It Yourself Beef on Weck

While no one carves up a Beef on Weck like Charlie, here’s a recipe to hold down the cravings between visits to our restaurants:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pretzel salt

1/2 cup caraway seed

1 tbsp corn starch dissolved in 1 cup cold water

1 cup boiling water

1 dozen hard (kaiser) rolls

3 lbs. Charlie The Butcher's cooked roast beef

32 oz. beef au jus

12 oz. fresh horseradish

Instructions:

Combine pretzel salt and caraway seed and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add corn starch and cold water mixture to boiling water, bring back to a low boil while stirring. Remove from heat and let cool. Place rolls on a cookie sheet. Brush corn starch mixture evenly over top of hard rolls. While still wet, sprinkle pretzel salt and caraway mixture evenly over top of hard rolls. Be careful, the salt will look as though it has disappeared when it gets wet, don’t use too much. Place rolls in 350 degree oven for 5 minutes or until corn starch mixture has dried leaving pretzel salt and caraway adhered to the top of the roll.

Heat au jus to a simmer. Dip 4 oz. portions of sliced roast beef in au jus until beef is warmed through. Be careful not to leave the beef in the au jus for too long as it will continue to cook the beef making it well done. Place dipped beef on the bottom of a sliced Weck roll. Add a dollop of fresh horseradish. Dip the cut side of the top of the Weck roll in warm au jus and finish building the sandwich. Enjoy.

Look for Charlie The Butcher's cooked roast beef in Western New York at Niagara Produce, Dash's and Market In The Square grocery stores and Tops Friendly Markets across New York State.

How it Began

It all began on a Wednesday in June of 1988 when Tom Jolls and Charlie debuted the first of many WKBW Backyard Barbeques. Tom, Western New York’s premier and veteran weatherman, with his TV cameras and monitor gave the weather live from your backyard. Charlie, with his grill, Chorizo, Polish and Italian sausages, Chicken Spiedies, Beef on Weck, etc. managed to smoke up many WNY backyards.

The tradition continues with Charlie The Butcher’s Backyard Barbeque. Of course Tom retired and Charlie doesn’t do the weather, but our staff are sure to please with a full assortment of Buffalo’s favorites. Let us do the cooking for you in your backyard and Taste What Buffalo is all About!